EDITORIAL: Test scores should be flexible part of teacher evaluation

By Enterprise editorial staff

Published 4:05 am, Thursday, May 8, 2014

All employees should be held accountable for their performance, but that's a tough challenge with teachers, especially when it comes to basing their evaluations on the test scores of their students on standardized exams. A good teacher with at-risk students might have so-so test scores, but an average teacher with bright students might produce better test scores.

Beginning next year, however, the Port Arthur and Port Neches-Groves school districts will take part of a one-year pilot program that gives a lot more emphasis to test scores in rating teachers.

Currently, test scores are one of 51 measures of teacher effectiveness. In the pilot program, test scores will increase to 20 percent of a teacher's rating. As one teacher put it, "It's scary."

Changes like this should emphasize improvement in test scores from year to year rather than raw passing rates. The state's goal should always be to make sure that struggling students have effective teachers.